Editorial Response: Tim Ali - 19 Action News|Cleveland, OH|News, Weather, Sports

Editorial Response: Tim Ali

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Tim Ali Tim Ali
(WOIO) -

 My name is Tim Ali, councilman in Middleburg Heights responding to Bill Applegate's "double dipping" editorial.

"Double dipping" is wrong and is hurting our economy.  Politicians have created a loophole to be able to retire, collect a public pension and get "rehired" at the same job and collect a public paycheck. Two public paychecks - one government job.  It's wrong and it needs to be changed.

For example, PERS - which stands for public employee retirement system - is the pension fund for most government employees.  The system has been analyzing its financial situation for years and has realized it can't continue on its present path.  Serious changes were made to this pension plan on December 31, 2012, eliminating an automatic three percent increase.  How many people get a pay raise every year no matter how bad the economy is?

If PERS goes bankrupt, you can bet they will be asking the taxpayers to bail them out.  If double dipping were stopped today, thousands of younger people could have a job.

Thank you. 

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